'Sesame Street' posted an 'SNL' audition reel for the gluttonous Muppet on their YouTube account. We're not sure if the children's show is serious about this viral campaign for Cookie Monster, which includes a Facebook page. But if they are successful, one of their most iconic characters would perform with the same people who railed against 'Sesame Street' for the Katy Perry debacle.

Chances are it's just a stunt. The producers probably want to seem hip again.

It's not surprising that a colorful and lively show like Sesame Street, one devised by the genius that was Muppets creator Jim Henson, was at heart a comedy. What is surprising is that so many adults who grew up with the show still find it so damn funny (or maybe that has more to do with the rise of marijuana use, but beggars can't be users, er, choosers).

In fact, a recent box set of the show's earliest episodes came with a disclaimer that the episodes contained within it were "not for kids." That's also because it contained the rare lost episode from the early 1970s when Grover and Prairie Dawn accidentally wandered into the Plato's Retreat swingers club where they learned the difference between "top" and "bottom".

The point is adults can find just as much to laugh at as their kids do and here are the biggest chortle-makers.

Sit a kid in front of a TV for an hour a day and a parent is bound to find something that offends them, other than the fact that plopping impressionable minds in front of a TV unsupervised is considered "good parenting."
Sesame Street is no stranger to controversy. Critics, cynics and crybabies have called out the show on everything from questionable behavior to the ambiguous situations...of puppets. Of course, all of these complaints and cackling criticisms just scratch the surface of a much bigger issue that has largely gone unaddressed: the total loss of our sanity and grasp on reality.

So as we look back at the last 40 years of television's greatest children's show, we see some speed bumps along the way. These are the ones that caused the greatest loss of tire pressure.

The Internet's never ending "series of tubes" were circulating rumors that I thought had already been addressed years ago by TV Squad, The View and even the monster's own mouth.

Rumors started circulating earlier this morning that Sesame Street's Cookie Monster would drop the "Cookie" on his business card and replace it with "Veggie." It became the top Google search this morning and fueled rumors that the character would make the official change on the show's 40th Anniversary on Nov. 10th.

A show rep said Cookie Monster will remain as such, even if he considers cookies a "sometimes food." That's good ol' Cookie Monster, teaching kids the value of nutrition while sacrificing the value of good grammar.

The Sesame Street character has not been renamed the "Veggie Monster" in an attempt to get kids eat better, says Gather.

The Veggie rumor, one of the top Google searches this morning, has spawned from the recesses of the Internet and was
probably fertilized, if you will, by reports that the show will be updated on Nov. 10 for its 40th anniversary season. Google's use of the Cookie Monster on its Google Doodle probably didn't help.

Those combative ladies on The View have another bee floating around in their Marge Simpson size bonnets. This story, however, caused perhaps the most egregious and heated debate/clusterf#*$ of noise in the show's history.

Cookie Monster has been in "cookie rehab" of sorts for about three years now. The View ladies finally caught wind of it and went off on a three minute tear about it using voices that are normally reserved for members of WTO protests or people who are on fire.

(Update - 8/3: Added the pic I took with Abby, Cookie Monster, and Sonia. This will be the only time you see me be in a photo with a celebrity here. In this case, I can let my journalistic standards slide a bit.)

Here's a fun thing to help close the first week of the press tour. Before yesterday's panel on the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street, Sonia Manzano, who's played Maria for the entire run, was outside the ballroom greeting people, as were three of the actors/puppeteers: David Rudman (Cookie Monster), Leslie Carrara (Abby Cadabby) and Eric Jacobson (Grover). Of course, all three brought along their characters to talk to the crowd, take pictures with the critics, and generally make everyone smile.

What I've always loved about the Muppets and the actors who give them life is that, not only are they speaking on a level that both adults and children can appreciate, but they're always so good and improvising. Think about this; it's not easy to say something funny on the spot when a reporter shoves a tape recorder in you face. And that's without a big ball of fur on your right hand. So I decided to goof around with Grover and Cookie Monster and threw them some curveballs. I also spoke to Manzano after the panel was over. All the audio is after the jump.

Get ready to see Grover in a tight suit and fedora, and Cookie Monster scarfing down glass after glass of (spiked?) milk. According to Miranda Barry of the Sesame Workshop, Sesame Street will parody Mad Men during the show's 40th anniversary season.

Barry appeared here with Dr. Rosemarie Truglio, who is in charge of the show's curriculum. They talked about the show's landmark season and what kids and their parents should expect to see. Among them: A new segmentized format, a new host, Murray Muppet, who will take kids through the various segments of the show, and a new segment featuring Abby Cadabby that's the program's first foray into CGI. The curriculum will emphasize science and nature along with the usual cornerstones this year.

Now onto the Mad Men parody. When asked how they would be able to pull it off, given the drinking, smoking, and womanizing that's a big part of the AMC show, Barry said, "You may have seen our parody called 'Desperate Houseplants.' It was about a houseplant not getting its needs met by the gardener. So it always works on two levels."

Believe it or not, the image to the right does not come from Sci Fi Channel or Lost. It doesn't take place in a spaceship nor time machine, and the screaming woman is neither under Cylon attack or enduring the brain-rattle of a jump through the time/space continuum.

In fact, her name is Kathreya. "Kat" - as she is better known - was a contestant the ninth season of the Big Brother UK, and she's throwing a tantrum because a faceless, omnipresent authority ("Big Brother," who speaks to her through a black hole planted in the wall) refuses to give her cookies.

That's the first thing that went through my head when I saw that the show starts its 39th season today on PBS (check local listings for time). This means that I must have started watching the show when I was around four years old, which seems strange to me, but I've learned never to argue with Bert & Ernie.

The new season of Sesame Street is right around the corner and, while I normally wouldn't give it a second thought, I am unusually excited right now. No, this isn't a snarky rant about how I've been driven to children's TV because of the sorry state of grown-up programming. Sesame Street's 39th season, starting August 11th, looks like it has a lot of fun lined up not only for the pre-schoolers but parents as well. I already posted Feist's upcoming special take on "1 2 3 4", but I had no idea how many amazing guest appearances were coming. Just check out this star-filled highlight reel after the jump.

That's right, the long-running PBS children's show has made a mega-deal with the shoe company to create a line of sneakers for infants and grade school kids. The infant sneakers will cost $43 (cough) and the grade school sneakers will be $65. The shoes will be available in major chain retail stores and the shoes will also be pushed during episodes of Sesame Street.

If you've ever wanted to see CNN's Anderson Cooper report the news from a trash can, today's your lucky day.

Cooper will be a guest today on PBS' Sesame Street. Check out the pic on the right. That's Cooper inside a trash can, next to Oscar The Grouch and his trash can. He'll be reporting for GNN: The Grouch News Network.

Muppet fans know that some characters evolve while others just spring up from out of nowhere. Cookie Monster, for example, began life as somewhat more ferocious-looking monster (the row of sharp teeth helped) in several commercials before being toned down and brought to Sesame Street.

In the clip below, a pre-Sesame Street Cookie Monster devours a machine while the machine describes how it works and what its many functions are. Actually, it only has one main function, but you'll have to watch the clip for that.